


Ace and Sabo

by Dark_Falcon



Series: One Piece Essays [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-13 16:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Falcon/pseuds/Dark_Falcon
Summary: this a very old essay about Ace's and Sabo's differences in moral reasoning that I wrote as a response to my frustration with portrayals of those characters that were popular in the fandom at that time. I had originally posted this essay on tumblr and I just don't want to lost it in case that site goes down.





	Ace and Sabo

It always troubles me, that the dominant interpretation in One Piece fandom for Ace and Sabo is interpreting Ace as emotional one and Sabo as rational one. This is founded on incorrect assumption that emotions and reason are opposite, which isn’t an Idea I wish to see at all that much, but unfortunately it is part of our logocentric culture, that puts instrumental reason at a pedestal. 

But lets get back to One Piece. Labeling Ace as the emotional one usually leads to further assumption that he is not really that smart (again, logocentrism). And I have serious objections to both statements. 

I can agree, that Sabo is quite smart and rational, however I don’t think he is any less emotional or driven by emotions than Ace, if not more, at least at times.

I don’t think Ace relies on emotions and feelings that much. He does appreciate emotions, but he always, and I really mean always, balance them with thinking. He really does things for reasons. Additionally I believe, that for some time Ace wasn’t able to feel all that much (although I would argue he did not lost the ability to feel completely at any given point). As a result he follows his own principles way more than he follows emotions.

I think relationship Ace and Sabo had, worked so well because they are both on similar level intellectually, albeit they have little different interests and strong points. I think they mutually helped one another develop. 

Sabo has interests directed into the outside world. For him learning how things work and what is out there in the world is of the prime interests. Ace on the other hand has interests directed inwards. He is concentrated on meanings, senses and on reason other people have for their actions. In other words Sabo would be asking “what?” and “how?”, while Ace would be asking “why?”. Of course neither of them is limited to those specific interests, which is why they compliment one another so well. This interest overlaps with the fact that Ace is more deontological and Sabo is more of a consequentialist. 

They are both very rational just in the different modes of rationality. Luffy on the other hand is different intellectual type. Which is a good thing, as he being in with him helps both Ace and Sabo to develop different predispositions and attitudes, including attitude towards one another. But the whole relationship with Luffy goes very different for both of them.

Ace downplays his own intelligence. If you’d ask him, he’d say Sabo is smart one. I think it’s both because he thinks so poorly about himself, because Sabo’s intellectual profile passes better for what people assume is smart (academic knowledge, solving technical problems with that knowledge) and because Sabo has more education after all. But he is wrong about that, he is actually extremely smart. Sabo may had been the one, that appreciated Ace’s intellectual abilities way more. It’s never addressed in the story but they have hang out together. I don’t think it was just purely business-like relationship and neither of them seem to be the type to suck up to the strong either. I believe they were actually able to understand one another very well, far better than anyone else could. Sabo didn’t actually seem to have any friends beside Ace, up until Luffy showed up. 

Ace’s problem is that he has extremely low start and very poor education. Despite that his way of thinking is quite advanced, even when he was a child. He is really the type of person who searches for the answers. He is very self aware and very aware of motives of his actions. He can grasp and conceptualize the working of the society. He is able to deal with really complicated and vicious inner struggle mostly in a constructive way and it shows in way he acts. He consciously sets himself in a process of learning and developing as a person, again with great success. And he does all that in with very little help for most of the time and in the conditions very unfavorable for development. Simultaneously he manages to acquire technical skills and academic knowledge necessary for navigation (no small feat in itself, especially in his situation).

The fact that Ace makes mistakes, takes wrong paths and does not get everything right immediately doesn’t make him stupid. It makes him believable and, as he never stops growing despite difficulties, even more admirable.

 

on the other hand Sabo is often treated as some kind of genius. By the fans he is often depicted as very polite and respectful little kid, which was neither shown in the manga, nor makes much sense. He was quite rude to Dadan, when they first met, and he was never shown doing any better. Sure he was more personable and pleasant, than Ace when they were kids, but does not necessarily translate to politeness. If I were to guess Sabo was always the one saying and doing more rude, disrespectful things, but he gets away with it, because his demeanor suggests, that there is no real malice behind it. He was more open towards people, he was probably the one doing most of the talking when they were kids (which is another thing why people think he is smarter than Ace*) so he also had more occasions for being impolite. I also believe that he probably had more “colorful” vocabulary than Ace, both because he loves to read (yet another characteristic associated with smartness**) and because he was more around various people. Sabo sometimes shows lack of regard for others even as an adult.

Arguably Sabo was brought up to be polite as little kid, but he was probably only taught to be polite to his “equals” and “superiors” and not just to everybody, and we know Sabo is simply not like that. The other thing is Sabo probably does not remember all that much from the time he still lived with his parents. He was living on the garbage pile since he was five at least if not even younger. He probably forgotten all skills he acquired earlier in life, that he wasn’t using in his current life. That includes manners.  Sorry, “obviously noble” Sabo fans, he was a trash heap kid, not a noble child.

I don’t think he was significantly more mature than Ace, although he was facing lot less inner difficulties.

Overall Sabo had much better start than Ace, and much more favorable conditions for development. He was probably tutored as a little child, even if he had absolutely poisonous conditions psychologically-wise as a child (thanks to his parents), but always tuition helps a lot. Most likely he also got help and good conditions for development once the Revolutionaries taken care of him. 

Out of the two of them Sabo (at least as an adult, and probably as a ten year old) is probably more knowledgeable. This however does not mean he is smarter. I don’t really think it’s easy to say, which of them is smarter. They are both really smart. It’s hard to compare, Sabo is now two years older, which meas two additional years of development. Moreover he certainly had better conditions for growth.

Sabo can be quite a forgetful airhead and just not listen to people. Ace can totally disregard consequences when he’s making decisions if some of his important principles are at play. It’s actually more of character consideration, than of intellect. It’s actually connected to his life experiences and his view of self. Which reminds me Ace really has troubles with his self image. We are yet to learn Sabo’s flaws, he may be too entangled with the past and “what if scenario”. 

 

* Ace was most likely doing the listening and was later giving feedback. Sabo was just more confident when it comes to communication with other people. Take a note, that Ace managed to grow out of being so closed up, which is no small feat.

** We don’t know if Ace liked to read or not, however the fact, that he actually could write and read as a kid is a testimony within itself. He at least wanted to learn it (probably from Sabo). He also got better fine motor skills than Luffy at least. Not that reading directly translates to intelligence.


End file.
